Brian Bird home on leave in High Bridge with Purple Heart for injury sustained in Afghanistan

HIGH BRIDGE — When Private First Class Brian Bird talks about the country in which he lived for the past year, the first thing that comes to mind is the landscape.

“A lot of it’s close quarters in the city,” he says of Afghanistan, but there’s also “a lot of open land — pomegranates and grape fields,” the main crops “now that drugs are illegal to grow.”

Army Private First Class Brian Bird and a child exchange 'five' in Senjaray, Afghanistan. Bird is home in Hunterdon County after a year's deployment, during which he was awarded a Purple Heart.

Later, much later, he admits when asked that yes, he did receive a Purple Heart after a grenade was tossed at his platoon while it patrolled the streets of Senjaray. Bird and another serviceman were hit with shrapnel. “I was able to get back with my platoon” to the Army base for medical treatment, he said.

Bird returned home from Afghanistan in time to celebrate Easter with his family in High Bridge — mom Donna Bird — and Clinton Township — dad Ken and stepmom Louann Bird.

Following a three-week leave he heads back to Fort Drum in New York, where he expects to help train the Army’s newest recruits for deployment, before his active duty service period is up. He will then spend at least five years as a reservist.

Bird attended High Bridge schools, then graduated from Voorhees High School in 2007. He wanted to join the Army at that point, said his stepmom, but his family discouraged him.

So instead he studied at Raritan Valley Community College, earning an associate’s degree. He wants to become a police officer, but instead of seeking a job right away he joined the Army. He’s glad he did.

“The service helps you find things about yourself that you had no idea you were capable of doing or were even interested in doing,” said Bird. “It gives you the skills you need in the civilian world.”

In his case, joining as an infantryman led to Afghanistan, where his platoon patrolled Senjaray to help protect its residents and help train that country’s army and police for a time when other forces are no longer in residence.

He thinks the training and experience are invaluable, and will help when he starts applying for a job as a police officer.

“At its most hectic over there my training really kicked in,” said Bird. “I had no idea that I would be able to go in this crazy situation and communicate to others what needs doing … to perform under that stress.”

On Aug.16, he learned how to keep focused even when injured, and then later had to return to patrol the same area where he’d been hit by the shrapnel. “The first patrol back I was pretty nervous,” he said, “but they trained us to use that heightened sense to help yourself.”

In Afghanistan he enjoyed “the camaraderie” of living and working with the people who became his new best friends. He won’t miss the blazing summer heat — day after day of cloudless skies and temperatures as high as 130 degrees.

Nor will he miss the lack of underground sewers in Senjaray — “Everything runs into the street, there’s crude drainage to funnel it to the middle of the street,” he explained.

He brings back good memories of the children of Senjaray, who enjoyed interacting with the soldiers.

But right now he’s just glad to relax in his old room and reconnect with his family, including sister Danielle and stepbrother Jeff Newbrough, and friends.

And there’s one more thing: “Pizza, it’s the one thing the Army can’t do. The food was alright, but I really missed home cooking.”